Croatia in Five Days....

Croatia. Hot, hilly, and lots of traffic. Absolutely no shoulder to the road. Not terribly cycle-friendly. But oh, those beaches...every bit as beautiful as they have been described, with crystal clear water and blue, blue vistas. Due to time constraints we only had five days there...but to be honest, if I go to Croatia again it will not be on a bicycle. Sailboat, maybe?
Here is how the five days went...
Muggia to Portoroz 45 km
The old border station loomed ahead of us as we exited the campground in Muggia, Italy, but the buildings are empty now that Slovenia is part of the EU. You could actually see Croatia off in the distance, but we needed to round the Slovenian coast first - all 47 km of it. After riding a very quiet road along the coast through farm country, we flagged down a road cyclist to get directions to the town of Koper. As usual, the map did not match the reality of the roads we saw, and we were worried about how to avoid the busy freeway. Just after a fork in the road, one way leading to the freeway and another down under the freeway, we saw a sign with a bicycle logo and the number D8. Hmmm...a bicycle path. Cool. The bicycle path led us through Koper (cute town, lunch at a restaurant right on the water) and turned into an old rails-to-trails, or railbed converted to bike and hiking path. The railway used to connect Trieste with Porec, a Croatian port to the south on the Istrian peninsula. Now, it winds its way through the hills beside vineyards, through tunnels, past farms and scrub forest. Finally we descended down to the cast, and checked one campground, where they basically wanted us to push our bikes up a steep hill and camp on a small dirt terrace right next to the busy highway. We passed, got back on the bike trail, and headed to the resort town of Portoroz, where the campground wasn't much better...but we were tired. The large port was full of expensive yachts and big sailboats, many flying German flags. The noise from the casino across the harbour echoed over the water until very late. Hard to sleep in many of the campgrounds. Ugh.
> Portoroz to Umag 38 km
After getting a little lost and a little irritable, we got back on the bicycle path/old railway grade the next morning. We passed the old salt ponds which were used for centuries to dry sea water for salt, a major industry in the past.
We cruised along the bike path, which was very nice, until I noticed that the Slovenian\Croatian border had uniformed officers, and was over there on the other side of some trees and bushes and we were cycling right past it. Probably could have rolled right past, but I was worried about what would happen if we didn't have the right passport stamps. So we cut back through some bushes and around and through a parking lot and got properly stamped and inspected.Border agents are generally amused when our small caravan rolls through. But I don't know how amused the Croatian agent was when Tom asked directions back to the bike path. A little more riding and we were up a hill, down to a town called Umag, and then in a nice quiet campground right on a beach. Erich watched some German retirees squidding as the sunset over the water.
Umag to Porec 36 km
A mostly unremarkable day. The town of Porec is set on a small peninsula jutting outinto th sea, and there were many tourists and fairly agressive shop owners. The historical section of town was small but quaint. We rode on a bicycle path on the coast through parks and past resort areas to a very large campground where, after some connving, we also put our tent up close to the beach, and also close to the FKK, or naturist, or nude area, which wasn't being used as such because it was cool and windy. Many of the Croatian campgrounds seem to have naturist areas bordering the clothed areas, marked by signs of figures with or without bathing suits. So far, Erich is OK with all of it.
Porec to Zminy 47 km
We decided to cut across the Istria, which is a heart-shaped peninsula with a hilly interior. We rode up a designated bike route which turned out to not be as steep as I had feared. The countryside was sparsely populated with lots of vienyards and oak/scrub forest, dotted with small towns. Almost every house had a small garden with grapes, tomatoes, onions, lettuce, and peppers. Many old women were out working fields and gardens in scarves, sweaters, and wool socks rolled half way down their legs. We stopped once to ask directions of such a woman, who waved us on one direction and vividly shook her finger, "no," to the other direction, smiling a fairly toothless smile and talking rapidly in a mixture of Croatian and Italian. After a few moments of hesitation we decided to follow her gestures, and headed down what turned out to be the correct road. There was a long downhill and then steep uphill in and out of a river valley, and with the ruins of a castle half way up.
The interior of Istria seems mostly unaffected by the massive tourist development on the coast, and we enjoyed the glimpse into a more traditional Croatian lifestyle. We spent the night in an apartment arranged by the very helpful tourist office.
Zminy to Cres 75 km
This was one long, tough day. From Zminy we rode a quiet road and then a busier one, hen a very steep descent with aching arm s from braking our heavy bikes. A short ferry hop, then we had a 10 km steep climb...OK, I walked parts of it. The sun was roasting us on the west facing slope, and there were few trees. The views were fantastic, with the blue sea, terraced hill,olive trees and goats. I haven't been to Greece but this is what I think Greece might look like. Some flat across the crest of the island, and then, horrors, another fairly steep uphill climb. Then a short steep descent into Cres town, where we crept into the campground and collapsed.
Cres to Omilsalj, 47 km
We started the morning with a very steep up, then down, then up, then down to the ferry terminal where we caught a ferry to the island of Krk. We met two Spanish cycletourists, Carol and Robert, and we were all amused by the wedding party on the short ferry ride. There was an accordion player, another old guy banging a stick with bells and goat hoofs, people doing the polka and toasting each other and the bride and groom, and all the Croatians were getting in the party mood with old ladies hauling themselves up to dance together.
Once on Krk, up, down, up, down, hot, and a busy road. We were headed to a campground shown on the map, but once in the small town of Omisalj most of the people seemed somewhat, ahem, inebriated, and the directions were not too clear. Well, it was Saturday evening. Finally found the campground, which came with a chair for Erich to use while doing his homework...see the picture!
Omisalj to Rijecka
Very warm morning, with a stiff wind, a headwind of course. This was our one secton of riding the very busy coastal highway on Croatia, and I was glad not to be riding more of it. Mostly a gentle uphill to the city of Rijeka, past some industrial areas and then around and into th city. It looked like a nice town but we saw very little of t, as we were trying to find a bus or train to Ljubjana, Slovenia. But that is the next story...
So the was our short Visit to Croatia.
More from Slovenia...

What Did Erich See Now?

Has to do with fires,
evenings, and winter.

So when the servants are playing the lyres,
the others don't have to interrupt.

Slovenia

Before I came to Europe I didn't even know that Slovenia existed. Slovenia is now part of the European Union, so that means that the country has less trade restrictions and has the same currency as much of the rest of Europe.

Slovenia is a small country and is located south of Austria, west of Hungary, east of the top of Italy, and north of Croatia. It has 47 kilometers of coast, along the top of the Adriatic. The biggest city is 300,000 people, Ljubljana, the capital. Slovenia is really hilly and has lots of forests. There are also many natural areas like national parks, and many thermal spas.

Some of the specialty foods are: Boreks (flaky pastry with meat or cheese), palascintas (pancakes ith chocolate sauce or nuts), and in the grocery store there are rows and rows of sausages.

The people spoke a surprising amount of English and were mostly really nice. There were alot of tourists there, mostly Germans. I liked Slovenia alot for being invisible to me before I came to Central Europe.

Cycling around the north of the adriatic...

When last you met these intrepid travellers, we were swatting mosquitoes in a campground on the shore of Venice Lagoon and planning our route north around the top of the Adriatic Sea. Getting out of Venice proved a feat worthy of Marco Polo. After that, the next few days was easy riding.

Fusina to Jesolo Lido, 80 km.
We woke up to a light rain and got a later start than hoped. We had planned to take a ferry from Venice to a sandy point north of the city, where we could bypass the industrial area of the mainland around the lagoon. As we turned onto the Venice causeway the traffic intensified with shuttle buses, tour buses, city buses, trucks, cars, whew. After a bit we found a cycle path which went a bit then abruptly stopped. A man directed us around through an industrial park and several turns, leaving us in an area of parking lots and buses disgorging tourists. We ended up back on the causeway, and at one point stopped and decided we should just cycle around Venice on the mainland. But no going back, as that would have meant riding against all that traffic and there is about a four inch shoulder on the road. After a bit a bike path appeared along the causeway, with a rusty guard rail between traffic and us. There were quite a few places where the guard rail was pushed in, from accidents I think...not reassuring. It was fun to see Venice from a different angle, though. Once across the causeway we managed to get turned around and started back on the causeway with the traffic, a bike path appeared and then after a bit just stopped and dumped us out in the road again where we found two Dutch cycletourists by the side of the road trying to figure out how to get across all the traffic and south. (We had seen other cycletourists headed on both sides and both ways and all looked confused. Venice needs to figure out a better system for cyclists.) We took a busy offramp right, over some bumps and down a ramp to a highway, again lots of traffic but we proceeded north, some fun. Past the airport the traffic lessened but the sign said no bicycles so we detoured away from the coast, through farmland and swampland, we each got a flat tire and it was pretty but we had not much idea where we were. Finally we saw some road signs and figured out a direction. At the end of the day we are in a campground in resort community, Erich is playing with a Dutch boy, Tom is writing in his journal, and I am nursing some sort of bottled Bacardi lime drink.

Jesolo Lido to Bibione, 65 km
Bibione to Acquilea, 65 km
We are planning our route to end up in a campground each night. Most of the campgrounds on the Italian coast are huge places with stores and shops, restaurants,sometimes hotels, and zillions of people packed on top of each other. They often have private beaches for the campers, and at one point Tom estimated 10,000 beach chairs in one area. You have to rent the beach chairs and umbrellas to sit on the beach, and it is not cheap. Anyway, this was two days of mostly nice cycling, Although sometimes we were on the fairly busy highway that follows the coast. The area is very flat and has numerous rivers draining across, so we had to make numerous jigs and jogs arund canals and rivers, each requiring a stop to check the map, as the road signs often just list the name of one of the towns down that road - not necessarily a big town or a close town, but just someplace out that way, or at least in that general direction. Which makes navigation interesting... Ah, here comes the campground train, which is playing the Macarena and taking the kids on a ride around the campsites. Erich is smiling as he rides around... He looks embarassed, too, but any diversion is better than another hour on the bike today!

Aquilea to Sistiana, 33 km
Aquilea is a small town inland and just about at the nrthernmost point of the Adriatic. The town was a large Roman city once, with an estimated 100,000 people and a major port. Now it is a sleepy little town except for the main road which is congested with cars full of holiday-makers on their way to the beaches just south. The basilica there is famous for its "PaleoChristian" mosaic floors which were done about 400 AD. The floors were very interesting, with many early Christian motifs and other designs. There were also a few remnants of the old Roman harbor. We stayed in a small and very quiet campground right in town.

Sistiana to Trieste (and now Muggia), a short 22 km
The terrain on the eastern side of the Adriatic abrubtly becomes hilly and covered with pine and hardwood forest. In fact, the campground in Sistiana, another huge resort place, is called Mar Pineta, or Piney Sea. We had our usual lunch break of cheese sandwiches in a park, and then climbed along the hills. On Sunday morning there is a marathon, apparently a big Italian race attracting international runners, and we are told on Saturday night that the road to Trieste will be closed all morning. We get out to the campground gate the next morning around 10:30, and the runners are going by, but they let us cycle along the side of the road, so there we were cyling to Trieste in the middle of thousands of runners. It makes for great cycling though, as the road runs along the pine-clad hills just above the sea, and there is no car traffic. It was even more crazy when we reach Trieste, as there is a family walkathon and various levels of running competitions and the whole place is mobbed. We walked around a little bit, and saw the architecture which is a combination of Italian and Balkan and Austro-Hungarian, because the town has been conquered by various rulers over time, each adding their architectural and cultural influence. Mid-afternoon we take a small ferry across the bay to the small port town of Muggia, thus avoiding the ugly industrial area of southern Trieste. That puts us in a campground right on the Slovenian border. The owner is an affable fellow who let us put up the tent right near the beach, where all of the other campers can walk by and stare at us. Most people seem to think we are German and completely daft at that. Oh, well...I tend to agree with the "daft" label at this point.

Tomorrow it is on to Slovenia.

More from on down the road!

Where Is Erich Now

Erich's Venice:
My experience in Venice was an awesome one. One of my highlights was
watching a man blow a glass pitcher on Murano Island. Another was the
cathedral
in Piazza San Marco. I liked the tiled dome in the cathedral.
It was interesting to watch the cool highschoolers
pull out their ultra cool white speedboats and slowly cruise along the
canal. Another interesting fact is that all of the palace's front doors
opened out to the canal. The Grand Canal was busy yet still beautiful.
Bridge #4 was the best bridge. It was very wide, with two lines of shops
in the middle with a set of steps in the middle and on either side. I
thought I would like to live in Venice until Mom reminded me that you
can't ride a bike there.

Stacey's Venice:
In my travels, many places have not lived up to my expectations. Some
places are better than expected, such as Rome. I could have stayed there
for weeks. Other places are disappointing, such as Florence. But Venice
was just as one pictures it, with old decrepit buildings opening onto the
canals, gondolas and traghettos, bridges of all sizes and different
constructions, and water everywhere.
We had a great time wandering on the small streets, taking the traghetto
up the grand canal, and eating gelato. The museums had beautiful art by
Titiano and other Venetian masters, in fact it was hard to escape all of
the art. Piazza San Marco was lovely and predictably crowded, but I guess
no where as crowded as it gets in the summer; someone told us that they
actually close the island to further tourists in the summer, becaus it is
so crowded.
While tourist-watching provided lots of laughs, there were some other
wierd parts. For instance there is a set of city laws governing behavior
in Piazza San Marco: no sitting in the piazza (except at the cafes), no
eating (except at the restaurants), no playing games, and there are
brigades of elderly women wandering around getting peple to stand up and
get rid of their snacks.
The only disappointment was that none of the gondoliers were singing any
opera...Verdi, anyone?

Galeria Ferrari

The Ferrari gallery was amazing. The whole bottom level was dedicated to
F1.
There were loads of engines and cars from almost every year. There was a
20*8 ft room with walls dedicated to photos of every Ferrari car ever
made including F1 and competition cars. My favorite part was, just at the
top of the stairs to the right, was the vicious, fast, and streamlined
thing of an Enzo Ferrari, the first of two road going F1s. For anyone who
likes classic cars, or just Ferraris, this is a great place.

Cycling the Po Valley

It is sundown in this campground on the shore of the Venice Lagoon. The
setting sun reflects off the domes and towers of the city, while cruise
ships and container ships head out to sea. Meanwhile over in the
campground cafe/bar the action is really picking up, as families, young
couples, and retirees from many countries eat pizza and drink while
swatting at mosquitos. We are eating french fries, trying to get in more
calories to asuage our hunger after the last few days of cycling.
The Po Valley is aa great area for cycle touring, as it is a bicycle
friendly area, relative flat, with lots to see.
On Thursday 4/19 we took a train from Assisi to Modena, a small city west
of Bologna. The train trip required four train changes but fortunately we
didn't have to haul the bikes up and down between platforms as there were
elevators which were large enough to fit bicycles - just barely. Once off
the train in Modena we got a little flibberdigitated trying to find our
way our of the station and into the town. As Tom wrote, we were
immediately impressed with the number of bicycles everyhere. It is great
to see the elderly men and women tooling down the road on their bicycles,
carrying groceries, flowers, small appliances....
We got a lot of smiles and "bravo's" as we rode through town, especially
from the older men. One man invited us for coffee in the main piazza, and
bought Erich a gelato. The campground was about five miles out of town.
We ended up eating in a trucker's restaurantnext to the campgound;
waiters came around with huge platters of pasta and kept loading up our
plates, and that was
just the first course!
Just south of Modena lies Marinella, where the Ferrari factory and
Ferrari Galleria are located. Marinella was on Erich's "hit list" for the
trip, so he was pretty excited. We cycled the 17 miles down to the
Galleria, but I'll let Erich describe the museum itself. Ouch! Those
Ferrari souvenirs are expensive, so we passed on the t-shirts.
After a cold and rainy night in the tent, we woke up in the middle of a
puddle. The sun was out, though, so we packed up and rode into Modena,
where there was a special Tribute to Enzo Ferrari being held. There were
Ferraris and Maserattis and Paganis in the town piazzas. We tried to see
the cathedral, which is supposed to be quite beautiful, but it was
closed. However we did see the Leaning Tower of Modena.
Modena - Bologna 63 km. It was after noon when we cycled out of Modena
toward Bologna. To avoid the "red roads" or main highways we cycled the
long
way around, and ended up riding past the Lamberghini factory, to Erich's
joy. The roads are flat as a margvherita pizza (Erich's favorite) in the
valley, and folks were
friendly as we stopped them to ask directions. The campground was about 5
km from town and a bit of a hairy ride on a main street at rush hour.
The next day, Sunday, we took a bus from the campground and walked around
Bologna, a lovely city. And, who'd have known there is a leaning tower of
Bologna, too? We climbed the 498 steps up to the top of the tower for a
terrific view of the city, laid out in a circle within the city walls.
There were many beautiful red stone buildings, and the main piazza was
also beautiful, surrounded by the cathedral, old government buildings,
shops, and cafes. Erich is big on sitting in streetside cafes and playing
cards, so we did just that.
We woke early Monday morning to a hard rain, and decided to take another
city day rather than riding through the downpour.
Bologna - Ferrara, 70 km. Again we took small side roads, although it
would have been much faster to ride the red roads.
Ferrara calls itself the Bicycle Capital of Italy, with many kilometers
of paved bicycle paths and bikes everywhere. It is also a lovely city,
built around a historic core of castle and cathedral. We visited one of
Lucrezia Borgia's homes, stumbled around town, and ate gelato. Erich had
a good pasticchio for lunch - puff pastry baked around a sort of macaroni
and cheese - welll, maybe you had to be there.
Ferrara - Lido de Pampona, 104 km.
We left Ferrara on bike path to the Po River, and followed the Po Destra
(Right side of the Po) Bike Path for about 30 km along the dike of the
river. The river itself was swollen from all the rain, with a lot of
debris. At Berra we cut southeast through farmland, mostly grass,
vineyards, and grains I think. Many people have small gardens with
artichokes, lettuce and onions, and fruit trees, making me hmesick for my
gaden. We wandered around a bit, aiming for the
Abbaye of Pamplona, which was a starred attraction on our maps as it was
an
important abbey in the 13th century. We passed on paying the entrance fee
at the abbey, but the guard let us peak through the doors at the frescos
and tile flooe mosaics. After a final 15 km into a brisk headwind we
arrived at the
beaches of the Comacchio Lagoon area. The lagoon was tranquil but the
Lido or beach, was not... The campground was one of those huge camping
villaggio place with hundreds of caravans, stores, swimming pools, yikes
is this camping? We dipped out feet into the Adriatic for the first time.
Cold!
Lido de Pamplona to Chioggia, 77 km. Since this area is a large river
delta, we ended up trying to navigate around the canals, rivers, and
wetlands, mostly in a headwind. While the farmlands and small towns were
pretty, it felt like we weren't getting anywhere. In fact, it got pretty
darn frustrating to see the mileage signs, 35 km to Chioggia, then ride
an hour and see the sign, Chioggia, 37 km. So we gave up on the back
roads and juat took the dreaded red road straight north. This was a big
holiday weekend, something like Italian Independence Day, so there were
gazillions of RVs and motorcycles on the road but perhaps less big
trucks. We finally reached the port town of Chioggia, which has many
campgrounds. It was "opening weekend"
at this campground, so many Italians were setting up their sites for the
season. They pay for a site for the summer, and then come every weekend
to hang out on the beach and sleep in their trailers. It was amazing to
see the sites developed;
people were hauling in truckloads of outdoor furniture, refridgerators,
mattresses, and canvas canopies, fixing outdoor sinks, and building
special wooden floors and stone patios. Quite entertaining to watch!

Chioggia - Fusina, just outside Venice. 76 km.
We had planned to take a ferry from Chioggia to the barrier
island, or Lido, and then on into Venice. But it turned out the ferry
would be about 70 euros - too much money. We decided to cycle, and ended
up doing another long day of detouring around through C'a Bianca, along a
canal, but then road construction further flummoxes us and we wind around
getting a bit lost, and after hours of riding it is still closer to
Chioggia than Venice. AArgh! Finally we flag down a road cyclist, ask
directions, and he offers to guide us to Fusina. Whew...he leads off at a
brisk pace and takes us on a route we never would have found, around
another canal, through the small fishing port of, at one point onto a
main highway marked with a no bicycles sign, all at a brisk clip tha
leaves me gasping to keep up. Finally we arrive in the town of Fusina and
then at the busy campground.
So, here we are at a campground looking across Venice Lagoon. The jets
descending above me are headed for Marco Polo International Airport. The
traghetto, or small ferry, is headed into Venice. And who knows the
destination of the huge container vessels just offshore. We are headed
into Venice tomorrow, ane then north around the top end of the Adriatic.
More from down the road!!!